EDUCATION/RESIDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE Five Strategies to Effectively Use Online Resources in Emergency Medicine Brent Thoma, MD, MA*; Nikita Joshi, MD; N. Seth Trueger, MD; Teresa M. Chan, MD; Michelle Lin, MD *Corresponding Author. E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @Brent_Thoma. 0196-0644/$-see front matter Copyright © 2014 by the American College of Emergency Physicians. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.05.029 [Ann Emerg Med. 2014;64:392-395.] may add so much over time that they cannot keep up with the reading list. New users should consider asking trusted colleagues for recommendations or an exported list of the INTRODUCTION Web sites they follow. Additionally, they can look at the list For health professions learners of all levels, staying abreast of of recommended blogs or podcasts that their favorite blogs or the literature can seem like an insurmountable task as the podcasts follow, which can often be found on the home page number of clinically oriented articles continues to grow at an (sometimes referred to as a “blog roll”). increasing rate.1,2 Fortunately, there has been a veritable explosion of online secondary resources that endeavor to digest the expanding medical literature and present it in a format that is STRATEGY 2: USE A PODCAST APPLICATION optimized for adult learners. Particularly in emergency medicine, Downloading, formatting, and organizing podcasts can be these resources have been dubbed “free open access medical time consuming and overwhelming. Podcast applications are to education,” also known as free open access meducation podcasts as RSS readers are to blogs. In both cases, the (FOAM).3 The FOAM movement has figured prominently in user specifies the content, and the software automatically acquires the proliferation of blogs and podcasts made available online by and queues the content for consumption. Podcast applications practicing clinicians.3,4 As an unintended consequence, learners notify users when new podcasts have been released, download must now contend with an exponentially expanding library of them, and play them. There is a variety of free and inexpensive both primary literature and secondary online resources. podcast applications available for all models of smartphones. To make effective use of this stream of knowledge, learners As with RSS readers, users must specify which podcasts they want must filter and choose from myriad resources. Simple digital to download, leading to the same potential problems. Again, a tools can be used to organize and manage this otherwise good place to start is to ask for recommendations from a trusted overwhelming amount of information. This article outlines colleague, as well as recommended sites on blog rolls. 5 strategies to help learners and practicing physicians stay abreast of both foundational and cutting-edge literature by using STRATEGY 3: USE COMPILATIONS TO FIND digital solutions. Table 1 provides an overview of each step. QUALITY RESOURCES The difficulty of identifying good resources has long been STRATEGY 1: USE A REALLY SIMPLE recognized. We have compiled and categorized a list of SYNDICATION READER recommended resources in Table 2. Several innovators have Following FOAM by visiting individual Web sites can be time developed unique solutions to help collate and curate content: consuming and overwhelming. Rich Site Summary, also know as The Life in the Fast Lane Review5 outlines the top FOAM Really Simple Syndication (RSS), feeds allow the latest content content published each week. It is written by an international from specified Web sites to be exported directly to a personalized team of authors that identifies quality resources in 5 categories reader. Rather than going to each site to check for updates, content (emergency medicine, critical care, pediatric emergency is automatically synced when it is published and presented in a medicine, toxicology, and medical education). magazine-like format that is easy to read. There is a variety of free FOAM EM is a blog that simply reposts content from most or inexpensive RSS readers available. A video tutorial demonstrating of the popular FOAM blogs and podcasts. The aggregated how to use Feedly, a popular multiplatform reader, is available content is linked to the original Web site. (Video E1, available online at http://www.annemergmed.com). A recent survey of Canadian residents found that faculty The flexibility of an RSS reader, however, can be a double- recommendations are highly valued by residents selecting edged sword. This strategy works well when an appropriate online resources.6 It may be worthwhile for residency amount of content is added by a user. However, new users can programs to compile internal lists of resources that have have difficulty finding good content, whereas experienced users been vetted by faculty. 392 Annals of Emergency Medicine Volume 64, no. 4 : October 2014 Thoma et al Strategies to Use Online Resources in Emergency Medicine Table 1. Examples and brief descriptions of the 5 strategies to effectively use online resources in emergency medicine. Innovation Examples Description RSS reader Digg Reader, http://digg.com/ An RSS feed reader gathers and automatically delivers articles from Web sites that you Feedly, http://feedly.com/ follow as they are published. This can prevent you from needing to repeatedly visit the G2Reader, http://www.g2reader.com/ same Web sites. Podcast Pocket Cast (Android/iOS, $4) Podcast streaming applications automate the process of downloading and listening to application AntennaPod (Android, free) podcasts by indicating when new podcasts are available for download, downloading Podcasts (iOS, free) them, and playing them. Podcatcher (Windows telephone, $1) Resource LITFL Review, http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ A team of authors at LITFL writes a review article outlining the best new blog posts and compilations blog-news/litfl-review/ podcasts released each week in emergency medicine, critical care, pediatric emergency medicine, toxicology, and medical education. FOAM EM, http://www.foamem.com/ FOAM EM is a blog that reposts content from other popular emergency medicine blogs and podcasts. Social networks Twitter, https://twitter.com/ Most producers of blogs and podcasts have Twitter accounts. With a Twitter account, you can follow and interact with them through brief (140 characters) notes. They send out links to their resources and other helpful information. Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ Most blogs and podcasts have Facebook pages. With a Facebook account, you can follow their updates, which often include links to their resources, and contact their editors. Googleþ, https://plus.google.com/ Some blogs and podcasts have Googleþ pages and communities. With a Google account, you can follow their updates and participate in detailed discussions. Custom search FOAMSearch, http://foamsearch.net/ FOAMSearch is a custom search engine that searches only specific medical journals, blogs, engine and podcasts, which cuts down the number of irrelevant search results by finding only resources published on Web sites directed at physicians. LITFL, Life in the Fast Lane. STRATEGY 4: USE SOCIAL NETWORKS TO Many of the larger blogs and podcasts have Facebook pages CONNECT WITH CONTENT PRODUCERS AND that can be “liked.” Although it is not as easy to engage the PEERS content producers or have detailed discussions on Facebook as it þ With 1-way media (eg, textbooks, e-books, podcasts), some is on Twitter and Google , it is a well-recognized social media learners can feel disconnected from the creators of the resources. platform for personal and professional use. Social networks have revolutionized communication between Social media sites can also be used as an informal feed of producers and consumers of educational content by removing online resources. By following select members of the FOAM traditional barriers. Authors, presenters, innovators, and thought community, users can see what new podcasts or blog posts are leaders are readily available on platforms such as Twitter, available and which garner the most discussion. In comparison to – Googleþ, and Facebook. RSS reader curation, this social media based curation strategy Twitter is a microblogging platform for sharing and receiving trades comprehensiveness for diversity and allows the user to brief (140 characters) pearls and links to recommended selectively choose content that has been implicitly endorsed by content. Most blog and podcast content producers use it to various individuals. publicize, share, and discuss their material. Twitter is also used to extend the reach of conferences7 and local academic teaching STRATEGY 5: USE CUSTOM SEARCH ENGINES TO sessions by reporting lessons learned.8 Recent tweets about FIND RESOURCES WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED FOAM resources can be easily found by searching for the hashtag Finding specific resources quickly when needed can be a #FOAMed. Some organizations and groups are using Twitter to 11 9 challenge. FOAMSearch (formerly GoogleFOAM) is a Google discuss literature through microblogging-based journal clubs. custom search engine that searches only specific sites that are relevant Pearls from the weekly didactic sessions incorporated into most to emergency medicine and critical care clinicians. By focusing on emergency medicine residency programs are tweeted out with the both medical journals and reputable FOAM resources (including hashtag #EMConf. A video tutorial demonstrating how to follow blogs, podcasts, decision support Web sites, and medical other users,